Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/113

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

NORVELL


NOTT


on Astronomu (1839); and First Book of Xatural Philosophy and Astronomy (1858). He died in New Haven, Conn., Sept. 21, 1883.

NORVELL, John, senator, was born near Danville, Garrard county, Ky., Dec. 21, 1789; son of Lipsocomb Norvell, a Virginian and an oflBcer in the Revolutionary war. On the advice of Thomas Jefferson he learned the trade of printer in Baltimore, Md., and at the same time studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He became a journalist and political supporter of James Monroe and Andrew Jackson. He edited an Anti-Federalist paper in Philadelphia, Pa., 1S16- 32, and in May, 1832, removed to Michigan Terri- tory, having been appointed postmaster of Detroit by President Jackson. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention that met at Detroit, May 11, 1835, and was chairman of eiglit committees. He went to Washington with Lucius Lyon in 1836, and on June 15 secured from congress the northern boundary line so as to include the mineral wealth and territory of a large portion of the upper peninsula in exchange for a small strip of land on the southern boundary of the state including the territory occupied by Toledo, Ohio, to which exchange the second convention of assent, December, 1836, agreed. He was elected, with Lucius Lyon, U.S. senator from Michigan, and he drew the long term expiring March 3, 1841. He resumed practice in Detroit, Mich., represented Wayne county in the state legislature in 1842, and was U.S. district attorney of Michigan, 1845-49. He supported the Polk administration in the prosecution of the Mexican war, to sustain which be sent three sons, and six of his seven sons served in the Federal army during the civil war. He was appointed on March 21, 1837, one of the twelve original regents of the Michigan State university and served 1837- 39. He died in Hamtramck. Mich., April 11, 1850.

NORWOOD, Thomas Manson, senator, was born in Talbot county, Ga., April 26, 1830; son of Caleb Merriman and Jeannette (Jlanson) Nor- wood ; grandson of Jolin Norwood, of Marj-land, and a descendant of John Norwood, of Norwood near London, who came to Baltimore, Md., be- fore the Revolution. He was graduated at Emory college, Oxford, Ga., 1850 ; taught school in Monroe county, Ga., 1850-51, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1852, and established a law office in Savannah, Ga. He was married, June 2, 1853, to Anna M. , daughter of George Hendree, of Richmond, Va. He represented his county in the state legislature, 1861-62 ; served as a private in the Confederate army, 1861-65 : was alternate elector on the Seymour and Blair ticket in 1868. He was elected to the senate as a Democrat in 1871. his seat being unsuccessfully contested by Foster Blodgett, Republican, and he served.


1871-77. He was the candidate of one of the two factions of the Democratic party for governor of Georgia in 1880, but was defeated in the election by Governor Colquitt, re-elected. He was repre- sentative in the 49th and 50th congresses from the first district of Georgia, 1885-89, and retired from the practice of law in 1896, upon being elected judge of the city court of Savannah. He is the author of : Plutocracy, or American Ml die Slavery, a politico-social novel (1888) ; Mother Goose Carved by a Commentator (1900) ; Patriotism, Democracy or Empire: A Satire (1900), and, under the pen- name Nemesis, of a series of articles in 1870.

NOTT, Charles Cooper, jurist, was born in Schenectady, N.Y., Sept. 16, 1827; son of Joel Benedict and Margaret Tayler (Cooper) Nott.and grandson of Dr. Eliphalet and Sallie (Benedict) Nott, and of Dr. Charles D. and Margaret (Van V^alkenburg) Cooper. He was graduated at Union college in 1848, studied law under John V. L. Pruyn at Albany, N.Y., and began the prac- tice of law in New York city in 1851. He was a trustee of public schools, notary public, loan commissioner, one of the commissioners ap- pointed by the governor to revise the school sys- tem of the city, and the unsuccessful Republican candidate for judge of the court of common pleas against Charles P. Daly, in 1858. In February, 1860, he brought Abraham Lincoln to New York to deliver the "Cooper Institute Address," which resulted in Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the presidency. (See letter in Nicolay and Hay's "Life of Lincoln," Vol. II., p. 217). He was cajDtain in the Fremont Hussars in 1861 ; was transferred to the 5th Iowa cavalry ; to the 131st New York volunteers as lieutenant-colonel, and to the 176th New York volunteers as colonel. He was taken prisoner at the capture of Brashear, city. La., June, 1863. and was a captive in Texas until July, 1864. On Feb. 22, 1865, President Lincoln appointed him judge of the court of claims, and on Nov. 23, 1896. President Cleveland appointed him chief justice of the court. He was married Oct. 22, 1867, to Alice Effingham, daugh- ter of President Mark and Mary (Hubbell) Hop- kins, of AVilliamstown, Mass. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Williams college in 1874, and was a trustee of Union college. 1868- 82. He annotated with Cephas Brainerd of New York, the " Cooper Institute Address of Abraham Lincoln " in 1860 : contributed editorials to the press ; wrote reviews and magazine articles, and is the author of: Mechanics' Lien Law (ISoQ); Sketches of the War (1863). translated into Ger- man (1883); Sketches of Prison Camps (1865), translated into German (1884) ; and compiled and edited : TJie Seve7i Great Hymns of the Mediceval Church (1866, 8th ed. 1902), and the Court of Claims Reports (36 vols., 1867-1901).